


Tártaro Consociationis

by DeusVult



Category: Fallout 3
Genre: F/M, Gen, Good times, Spoilers for Endgame, cannibalism mention, eventual charon/F!lone wander, everyone will eventually appear, it's not serious though, just realized this is technically a slow burn, spoilers for broken steel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 18:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3988222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeusVult/pseuds/DeusVult
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly always had a soft spot for shotguns.<br/>And an even softer spot for shot-gunning ghouls. Apparently.</p><p>A compilation of Charon/F!LoneWanderer oneshots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Power Armor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I didnt bother putting Charon in Power Armor until I started Broken Steel. And I just. What if?  
> So were just going to pretend that all NPCs in fallout 3 can't usually use power armor, mkay?  
> Also. I really like Charon. A lot.

Lepelletier's request was simple, track down the bandits causing trouble for her guards on the aqua pura caravans and eradicate the problem.  
Finding and dealing with the bandits was even simpler. Molly Shepard, for all her whimsy and nonchalance was horrifyingly efficient with a shotgun.  
Split Jack wouldn’t be a problem any longer. Also, Grandma Sparkles stew was so good, Molly just had to bring some back for Charon. You know, if she could even get him to eat.  
When she makes it back to Rivet city, Lepelletier is grateful but unable to reward Molly. The Officer sheepishly apologizes and suggests that Scribe Bigsley will be able to properly compensate Molly for her services; she doesn’t mind, Bigsley needs a distraction every now and then or else he'll snap.  
After talking with Lepelletier, Molly makes her way aboard ship and down into the Muddy Rudder.  
As sure as the day is bright, Charon and DogMeat are right where she left them. Charon is sitting stiff in his corner chair of the bar, cleaning his shotgun for what Molly assumes must be the fourth or fifth time since she left them here this morning. DogMeat seems to have charmed Trinnie into buying him a snack, and got a nice brushing courtesy of the Butch-Man. Such a cute dog.  
When Molly pulls up a chair, Charon snaps to attention.  
"You return. Shall I join you once more?"  
"I would want nothing more." Molly beams a winning smile at the red-headed ghoul. It goes unacknowledged and Molly withers, unsurprised and a little frustrated.  
"Understood." Charon grunts.  
"… Are you hungry? I brought you some really rad mirelurk stew." Molly scoots her chair a little closer, her shoulders scrunched, a goofy grin on her face.  
"…" Charon's brow knits slightly.  
"Get it? Rad?? 'Cuz its good-" she leans closer to the ghoul, wiggling her eyebrows.  
Charon looks vaguely disgusted.  
"…And also… Irradiated to hell… and back." Molly's smile turns awkward and her body-language stiffens.  
"I am not hungry." The ghoul states flatly as he stands and gathers his pack.  
"Yeah, thought so." Molly follows his example and gives a sharp whistle, signaling for Dogmeat to tag along.  
They walk through the marketplace on their way out and Molly stops to say hi to Flak and Shrapnel, who tell her that her .44 ammo just arrived. Molly coughs up the caps for the ammo and tells flak to go easy on his boyfriend; Shrap's looking pretty tired lately. This gets molly a few flustered, angry remarks from the two as she sidesteps out of the shop.  
Harkness tells her to stop causing trouble.  
The Lone wanderer coughs to break the silence as her trio crosses the bridge from Rivet city to the capital wastes.  
"So were headed to project purity to collect a reward, then we'll head on home. I guess. Do you want to stop in Underworld for anything? Say hi to carol? Visit Chop Shop? Spit on Ahzrukal's dead body?" Molly almost tricks herself into thinking she heard a laugh from the giant.  
"No, Thank you."  
"Its what I'm here for."  
The gang walks in companionable silence for a mile or two until they find themselves out front of the Jefferson memorial gift shop.  
Even though the memorial has long since been reclaimed from super mutants and enclave forces, every time Molly enters the building she gets shivers. The fog and ever present feeling of danger that lingers in the air long after that danger has passed has always made this a difficult locale for her.  
This building was where her dad was killed, and it almost got her too. Her fear is unreasonable, but valid as far as she can tell.  
Molly kicks a stray water bucket down the long hall to the main offices, gaining a chastising remark from a scribe initiate as DogMeat clangs down the hallway after the bucket. What a cute dog.  
"Who is making all that noise." Molly hears Bigsley shriek in annoyance.  
"Hello to you too, Bigs." Molly quips as she rounds the corner into the scribes office.  
"Christ almighty, what do you want." Bigsley groans and Molly hears Charon grumble something under his breath.  
"I took care of the bandit problem. Lepelletier said she would radio ahead for you to reward me?" Molly leans on the door frame as a scribe initiate tries his darndest to stop DogMeat from peeing on some old boxes in the laboratory. Such a good dog.  
"Yes, yes, I got her transmission. When we took back the memorial, there was quite a bit of enclave gear left behind. We filed and catalogued most of it, but theres still a few things that have yet to be accounted for. You're free to use any of that junk." Bigsley motions towards a crate of worn enclave power armor sitting in the corner.  
"Eh, better than nothin' I guess." Molly shrugs and meanders over to the crate.  
The Enclave armor is even heavier than the type the brotherhood uses, and those are ridiculous. Molly is by no means weak; she's actually pretty sturdy for a skinny, wide eyed vault-kid. But there's no way she's carrying this armor all the way to megaton. It's just not happening.  
"Hey Charon, come carry this for me!" Molly hollers as she sets the armor on the ground with a *thump*. A glint at the bottom of the crate catches her eye and she almost falls in trying to reach it.  
"Hey Bigs, can I have this plasma rifle too?" Molly yells, still mostly in the crate, upside down.  
"Sure. It's broke to hell, so yes, please, by all means. Take it."  
Molly pulls out a dingy plasma rifle from the crate, examining it to figure out what still works and what doesn’t.  
"Miss Shepard."  
"Yeah Charon?"  
"Do you wish for me to wear this armor?" Charon asks.  
Molly is still inspecting the rifle.  
"No, no, no, hun. I just want you to carry it. Power Armor takes lots of training to get used to, and you can hurt yourself pretty badly if you don’t know what you're doing. If you like, I can probably get Paladin Gunny to train yo-"  
"I am trained."  
The room goes silent.  
Molly whips her head around so fast things get a little fuzzy, Bigsley's eyes are bugging out of his head and the poor scribe initiate that had just walked in long enough to hear the exchange simply walks back out.  
"What do you mean, 'you're trained'" Bigsley asks in a low, almost dangerous tone.  
"I am trained in the use and application of Power Armor." Charon answers stone faced in his usual tone, not even turning to look at Bigsley.  
"Who trained a fucking zombie to use-"  
"Watch what you say, Bigsley." Molly raises her voice and effectively shuts down the scribes angry rant before it can even begin.  
"… Based on Bigsley's reaction, It wasn’t the brotherhood who taught you." Molly moves closer, and she gestures for Charon to put on the armor.  
He does so with practiced ease.  
"The only other people who can train in power armor are the Enclave! Your Zombie's a spy!" Bigsley all but screams, sifting through the papers on his desk for his plasma pistol.  
Molly has her shotgun trained on Bigsley before he can even load the clip.  
"I told you to watch your fucking language."  
The tension in the room is so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.  
"Also, he isn't Enclave. The Enclave hates ghouls more than most, if any of their officers begin displaying symptoms of ghoulification, they put them down. Charon wouldn’t have survived. No offence, Charon." Charon grunts.  
"Then who? If he isn't Brotherhood and he isn't Enclave, then who taught him?!" Bigsley is getting red in the face, but is no longer holding his pistol.  
"Bigsley, you need to go take a nap before you go on a rampage." The wanderer gives the scribe a nasty look and the group hears a low growl from Dogmeat.  
"Charon, I'm gonna go out on a limb here. You're a lot older than I initially thought, aren't you?" Molly turns her attention back to the ghoul in question.  
"Yes."  
"Well that settles it." Molly gathers her pack and prepares to leave.  
"I'll be in Megaton if you need me, Bigsley." She turns to walk out the door.  
"Wait! What just happened??" Bigsley is verging on furious.  
"Bigsley, use your brain. There are plenty of ghouls around that were alive during the great war; Lots of 'em are feral now but there's a few that still remember." Molly gives a pointed glance at Charon then back at the scribe.  
Bigsley looks tired and confused.  
"Pre-War American Military is the whole reason why we have power armor today." Molly waits for the realization to hit Bigsley, then she and her gang leaves.


	2. Moriarty's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fresh out of the vault and Molly already has her priorities in order.
> 
> "She might be a little dehydrated." so I guess you could say Molly is.... Thirsty.  
> *Ugly Laughter*

The first time Molly saw him was in Megaton, in Moriarty's saloon. It was shortly after she was purged from the vault, torn from Amata and all her friends. Her dad was missing and she had no leads.  
She was so alone, so scared. She had killed a man.  
But through all of that, the thrill of exploring this new world that had always been just out of reach was so enticing.  
The sky changed colors. The vault wasn’t so poorly educated that they weren't taught what the sky was, but she certainly wasn’t prepared for just how varying its colors could be. A soft shade of Gray in the early morning, a light blue at midday, or sometimes pink in the evening. Pink, though? Really? That’s amazing!  
Then there were the sands and ruins, which were sad and intriguing all in their own; the wind whispering through the desolated town of Springvale reminded her of the pre-war ghost stories that old lady Palmer used to tell.  
But the people were the most amazing of all. They thrived in this wasteland, and Molly couldn’t help but feel like that if they could make it, she could too. An entire town made of parts from machines that used to rule the skies, machines that could take you halfway around the world in a matter of hours. These people were tough; they had to be, or they would have died off long ago.  
Then there were those that Molly considered the toughest. The Ghouls. People so affected by radiation that it altered them completely, but unlike others, they survived. They became horribly disfigured by the radiation and have had the curse (or gift, depending) of longevity thrust upon them. Molly soon learned that ghouls are treated as second class citizens by most others. She doesn’t think this is acceptable.  
The ghoul standing in front of the bar exchanging caps and wrapped packages with the other ghoul behind the bar, however, was particularly hideous.  
He was a full head taller than anyone she had ever met. His grimy, short, red hair sat in choppy patches across his scalp. His skin was redder than the bartenders, his muscle exposed in certain sections; the sinew and raw flesh was so vibrant and revolting. His foggy blue eyes were sunk deep into his skull and she was pretty sure his lips were missing.  
And really, he was perfect. It was like everything else disappeared and he was floating in a beautiful infinite space filled with luminescent clouds and stars made of rainbows; she swears she could hear angels sing the moment they met eyes.  
So there she stood in the middle of Moriarty's Saloon, mouth agape, having seen Ghouls for the first time. Nothing could have prepared Molly for this moment. The last time she had a crush, it was on Freddie Gomez and they were ten years old; However, Molly's pretty sure she has a crush on this gigantic, flaking man.  
She knows she's supposed to be searching for her dad, but she just has to take a moment to talk to this man.  
So, like the totally smooth and attractive eighteen year old girl in pigtails she is, Molly stumbles awkwardly over to this wall of ghoul flesh and tugs on his elbow.  
The Ghoul bartender looks over the man's shoulder to give Molly a worried look. The red-headed lady in the corner fidgets nervously like she wants to intervene and scoop Molly up.  
The tall ghoul just barely looks over his shoulder, an expression between annoyance and apathy plastered on his face.  
"H-hi, my name is Molly and have you seen my dad-" That’s definitely not what she meant to say.  
The Ghoul turns back to the bartender.  
"Whose infant is this." He asks, completely serious.  
"Uh, I'm really not sure. I've never seen her around. She's wearin' a vault suit, though." The bartender breaths out heavily.  
The tall man turns back to Molly.  
"No."  
And with that, the tall ghoul concludes his business at the bar and leaves without a second glance at the weird young woman.  
"Look, kiddo, we don’t serve minors. You're gonna have to leave." The bartender states after a few moments of silence.  
Molly is staring at the door, face flushed and taking shallow breaths. She might be a little dehydrated.  
"Who was that guy?" Molly asks the barkeep, still staring at the door.  
"I'm serious, we don’t serve kids here." The barkeeper is feeling a little bewildered.  
Molly ignores him.  
"… His name is Charon. He works for a guy in Underworld. He picks up packages for his employer from Moriarty occasionally. But usually his boss has him doing more dangerous stuff." The bartender sighs as he goes back to cleaning cups, giving up on ousting Molly.  
"He's so cool."


	3. Chapter Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This ones short, but it takes place about four years after the second chapter and one year after the first chapter! 
> 
> ...Only two years late to this update. Incredible.

"Ok, but to my credit Charon, how was I supposed to know it was a deathclaw nest?!" Molly has three deathclaw eggs planted in her arms as Charon and herself run as fast as they can. Charon is holding Dogmeat as the pup frantically barks at the Mama deathclaw they just bamboozled.  
"We could have left! We didn’t need the eggs!" Charon rasps, forcing dogmeat to still in his arms.  
"Are you kidding?! Deathclaw eggs are pure gold! Pure protein-based, irradiated, yolky gold, Charon!" Molly screams to her companion as they run through the wastes dodging claws and teeth.  
It takes 3 hours of tactfully avoiding the deathclaw and continuously screaming before they manage to find a tree sturdy and big enough to fit all three of them.  
"Well Charon, this is our life now. This tree is home. Goodbye Megaton. Goodbye Rivet city." Molly stares off wistfully into the setting sun. Dogmeat whimpers. The deathclaw paces beneath them, waiting patiently for one of them to lose balance.  
"Christ, Shepard, stop Monologuing and load your fucking gun already!" Charon states, trying his best to not shoot the dog in his lap as he loads his shotgun.  
"Yeesh ok, ok." Molly begins to load the plasma rifle strapped to her back and takes aim at the deathclaw.  
"Hey Charon, do you think deathclaws cannibalize eachother?" Molly shoots the deathclaw in the neck, pissing it off.  
"What?" Charon takes a potshot at the creature's tail.  
"Like, how fucked up would that be?" Molly aims for its neck again but hits it's shoulder blade instead.  
"A little less fucked up than a human cannibalizing another human." Bang. Right in the nose.  
"Less? How so? Explain." Molly hits the deathclaw in the eye and it roars in pain.  
"Deathclaws are animals. Plenty of animals cannibalize members of their own species, but humans have higher brain functionality and cannibalism disturbs us more. Or something." Charon pumps his shotgun and aims again.  
"In-credible. So you don’t think deathclaws are weirded out by cannibals?" Molly shoots at the deathclaw's tail and misses. "Shit."  
"Sharks aren't weirded out when their babies cannibalize eachother in the womb." Charon shoots twice at the deathclaw's chest.  
"Woah, ok. Two things, Char. First, what the hell is a 'shark', and second, what the fuck?" Molly stops to look at Charon. The deathclaw flings sand up at them.  
"Seriously? You were raised in a vault, how do you not know what a shark is?" Charon keeps his focus on the beast.  
"I only remember learning about dogs, cats and goats. Also, I wasn’t the best student. You weren't with me the first time I saw a brahmin." A potshot at its leg and then reload. "I lost my goddamn mind."  
"I bet." Charon lands a hit right in the center of the deathclaws face and it staggers.  
"Nice, Char!" Molly gives the ghoul a thumbs up and a wink. Charon laughs a little.  
"I think I blinded her." The two watch as the mother deathclaw bumps face first into the boulder next to the tree.  
The deathclaw screams in pain and scratches at its face and eyes, still bleeding from the shotgun pellets.  
"Oh, Charon. This is sad. We gotta end this." Molly lines up for a headshot and pulls the trigger. It hits and Charon lets off one final shot to seal the deal. The deathclaw goes down, finally.  
"We stole her kids and then murdered her. Were just saints, aren't we Char?" Molly hops down from her branch on the tree with a thud. Charon follows and lets go of dogmeat.  
"Were monsters." Charon's tone is dull, but there's a smile on his face.  
They spend a little time just smiling at each other as Dogmeat runs off to pee, desperately.  
"… Dude, its fuckin cold. Where are we, even?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one time i pissed off a random deathclaw and ran like hell and i wound up clipping into a boulder, which then flung me into a tree, and i was stuck for 3 hours in-game while a deathclaw tried to dunk me straight into the trash.  
> Sadly, a reset was necessary, but its memory lives on.


End file.
